The Socceroos winger insists he won’t be leaving Queensland in the transfer window and reckons Roar will thrive a possible five games in 15 days
Brisbane Roar have the depth to compete in both the A-League and the AFC Champions League (ACL) according to winger Tommy Oar, who insists he won’t be leaving in January.
Roar’s ACL qualifying route will be finalised on Tuesday when Global FC of the Philippines host Singapore’s Tampines Rovers with the winner of that match set to visit Brisbane on January 31.
If Brisbane win that ACL qualifier they will take on Shanghai Shenhua in China on February 8, meaning they could potentially play five matches in 15 days from Saturday’s A-League clash with Western Sydney Wanderers to their trip to Melbourne City on February 11.
While Football Federation Australia’s unwillingness to move the game against City has irked the club’s management and Roar coach John Aloisi, Oar is looking forward to the challenge.
With Brett Holman returning from injury this week, Oar has backed Brisbane’s squad to handle the battle on two fronts.
“We’ve got a lot of depth in the squad and there’s no reason why we can’t win all of the games, really,” the 25-year-old said on Tuesday.
“So there’ll obviously be times where there’ll be a lot of travel and it’ll be tough but I guess that’s when you use the whole squad.
“We’ve got a lot of quality and there’s no reason we’ll be dropping any points unnecessarily.”
Oar added: “We’ve kind of been working the whole pre-season and the whole season so far to make sure that when this part of the season came around that we were in good enough condition to handle it.”
After a run of three straight defeats in the A-League, Roar bounced back with a 1-0 triumph away to Wellington Phoenix on Saturday to sit fourth in the table with 11 matches remaining this season.
Brisbane may be 16 points adrift of leaders Sydney FC but Oar believes the men in orange remain genuine contenders for the championship and told reporters that is why he won’t be leaving the club.
There has been plenty of speculation this month that Chinese Super League clubs were interested in signing the Socceroos winger.
“I guess there’s been a lot of rumours around but for me, I haven’t heard anything, any substance to those rumours and my focus has been purely on here and performing well this season,” he said.
“There’s no real reason I can see that anything will change for me in the next six months.
“I really want to win something with the club this year and I think we have the quality to do that.”